Year for Priests: A modest suggestion for the priesthood

By Father Kenneth J. Doyle
One in a series
On June 19, at a vespers service in St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Benedict XVI formally opened what he has proclaimed as the Year for Priests.
The purpose of the year, the pope has noted, is to encourage among priests a deeper prayer life and a renewed effort toward the [...]

Michael Jackson’s spirituality

Amid the whirlwind of talk and writings about the “King of Pop,” Michael Jackson, after his death last week, we stumbled upon a story he wrote for Beliefnet in 2000 chronicling his faith.
During his childhood in the spotlight, Jackson found solace in going to church on Sundays, he wrote. He was raised a Jehovah’s Witness, [...]

Year for Priests: Called to be a witness of hope

Editor’s Note: Today we introduce a new feature, a blog series on the Year for Priests from the perspective of priests themselves. We have several priests who have agreed to write for us about their lives and ministry. Watch for their posts in the coming weeks and months.
By Basilian Father Chris Valka

Pope Paul VI said, [...]

Fairness Doctrine would threaten Christian stations, author says

Christian radio and television stations had better watch out — the government might get them. So says conservative author Brad O’Leary.
He spoke out at the Heritage Foundation Wednesday against the reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine, a defunct Federal Communications Commission rule that would require equal attention to both sides of controversial issues in broadcast editorial content.
Although [...]

A gathering in Venice

VENICE, Italy — I was pleasantly surprised the other day to find that Cardinal Angelo Scola of Venice was following me on Twitter. I began using Twitter a year and a half ago, mainly to stay in touch with friends and family, so I’m hoping the cardinal won’t be disappointed to discover more about what [...]

An anniversary for a war-torn church

Priests and parishioners killed. A cathedral almost completely obliterated. The head of a wooden statue of  Mary badly burned, but miraculously intact.
It’s been 50 years since the reconstruction of the Urakami Catholic Cathedral, which the atomic bomb ravaged in 1945 in Nagasaki, Japan. Built by the French in 1914, it had been the largest Catholic [...]

Remembering ‘a man of peace’

The Catholic Spirit, newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, has a touching story about Father Timothy Vakoc, who died on Saturday. He was reportedly the first Army chaplain to be gravely injured in the Iraq War.
His older brother told the Catholic newspaper that he hopes the 49-year-old will be remembered as a [...]

Kids say the darndest things — the sequel

A Jewish neighbor of mine talked to me early this spring about how he could explain Passover to his inquisitive 4-year-old daughter without either making it sound too grisly or papering things over.
I was confronted by a similar situation at church last month.
My family’s pew is in a transept where there is a large crucifix, one much larger than [...]

Catholics and the death penalty

The Florida Catholic has created an interesting presentation on the death penalty that is worth looking at. It’s a 12-part feature, headlined “The death penalty: Voices unite for louder opposition,” outlining church treaching on the death penalty and opinion poll results and includes the witness of Catholics and non-Catholics speaking out against the death penalty.

Support continues despite delay of immigration reform meeting

Although the White House announced that the meeting between President Barack Obama and key leaders in the push for immigration reform would be delayed for a second time, supporters still came to Washington for a prayer vigil at the Church of the Epiphany Wednesday.                                         
Parishioners representing the Archdiocese of Baltimore, including St. Michael/St. Patrick Parish, held up [...]